Norman Catherine's artistic career began in 1969 with his first solo exhibition at the Herbert Evans Gallery in Johannesburg, which included oil paintings on wood, bone, wire and a variety of found objects.
Hazel Friedman describes his development as follows "In the thirty years spanning his past and present output, Catherine’s visual trademarks have included rough-edged comical and nightmarish forms, rendered in brash cartoon colours.
His idiosyncratic vision – a combination of dark cynicism and exuberant humour, as well as his innovative use of everyday material, has secured his place at the forefront of South African contemporary art" Hazel Friedman on Norman Catherine [1].
Themes such as history, horror, crime, conflict, psychosis, politics and pathology stimulate his creative process, which oscillates between the macabre and the comic.
He conveys his cynical outlook by juxtaposing dark and light sentiments, moving between an inner hallucinatory realm and a literal commentary on the material world.